Bassist Pino Palladino and producer Blake Mills have spent much of their careers rooted in radio-friendly popular styles — working with big names in rock, pop and R&B. But when they play together, their music challenges those categories.
This week, they released their second set of genre-defying tracks together, That Wasn’t A Dream.
Palladino’s resume is nothing short of remarkable. The 67-year-old Welsh bass player has left an indelible mark on popular music over the past four decades, recording with Don Henley, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Aldele and Erykah Badu. He was a part of the John Mayer Trio and had stints touring with D’Angelo, The Who and Nine Inch Nails.
“I’m known for playing on all sorts of different records and styles of music.” Palladino said. “I think when me and Blake get together, it turns into something unique — which is a word that’s probably overused to describe things. But I think I’d like to stick with that word for this.”
Nearly 30 years Palladino’s junior, Mills’ star has been rising since getting his start as a guitarist and vocalist with the Southern California rock group Simon Dawes (now known as Dawes). Along with a series of acclaimed solo records, he’s also worked as a producer for artists such as Fiona Apple, Conor Oberst and Alabama Shakes.
Forging a musical partnership
The duo quickly formed a musical kinship in 2016, when Mills brought Palladino and drummer Chris Dave into the studio for a session with John Legend. Palladino invited Mills to spend a day working on some of his songs in progress.
“That day turned into two years of working on his music,” said Mills. The collaboration led to the duo’s 2021 album, Notes With Attachments.
While Palladino is well known in many circles of popular music, he scoffs at the idea of trying to categorize his work with Mills.
“I don’t know where you would put it genre-wise and I don’t particularly want to,” he explained.
Their compositions blur lines between structure and improvisation and also the hierarchy of a song. “Taka” is driven by Palladino’s swirling, yet hyper-focused bassline.
“I came up with that bassline and that melodic idea pretty much vibing on my own,” Palladino said of the track. “I love African music — West African music specifically. And that was the inspiration from listening to a lot of that music and kind of internalizing it.”
The collaborative process
The creative process is truly collaborative, both men say — one of them will introduce a section of a song in progress and then ask the other for ideas.
Palladino points to “Contour,” the opening track from their new album, as an example. He initially wrote the first part of the song on a Spanish, nylon-string guitar.
“I didn’t know where to go next on it to complete the piece,” Palladino said. “Blake, he had something immediately — like a chord change and a development of the melody.”
When working out parts and song ideas, the duo tends to work without other musicians. Mills notes that the absence of a drummer isn’t problematic when he’s with Palladino.
“There’s still such a sense of rhythm,” Mills said. “It feels like there’s an imaginary ensemble playing with us, and I just kind of lose myself and forget that I’m just playing with one other person and go into this trance of rhythm.”
Commissioning a new instrument in Mills’ sonic ‘vocabulary’
While making the album, Mills was looking for a way to sustain notes on a guitar. He’d used a device called an EBow, but was frustrated by its limitations. Eventually, he discovered the work of guitar maker Duncan Price, who was experimenting with creating unusual six-stringed instruments with no frets.
The result is what Mills has dubbed the “fretless baritone sustainer guitar.”
“Since I’ve had it, I’ve used it on everything,” Mills said. “On every record I’ve produced, I’ve ended up picking it up and using it in some way.”
While Mills says the instrument’s sound is now part of his musical “vernacular or vocabulary,” he isn’t exactly committed to the wordy name he’s given it.
“Until we come up with something that will fit on a lapel pin, I think we’re trying to keep it still in a prototype phase.”
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